Ancient Rome used lead pipes to transfer water throughout the city. It was later found to be a health concern for the Roman citizens.
LEAD IN ROME
Lead was causing health problems in Ancient Rome
lead was extensively used in plumbing
domestic utensils were made of lead and pewter
lead salts were used in cosmetics, medicines and paints.
Like a microbicide, lead was also used to preserve food.
Rather than encrusted lead pipes, a more probable cause of chronic lead poisoning was the consumption of defrutum and sapa.. (They were made by boiling down grape juice or must (freshly squeezed grapes) in large kettles until it had been reduced to two-thirds the original volume)
how the must (Grape juice before or during fermentation) was boiled and reduced, whether in pots of bronze or lead? - reducing must in a copper or lead vessel over a slow fire, stirring constantly to prevent scorching; continue the boiling, until you have boiled off a half
Metabolic disorders can be caused by a lack of nutrients, but they can also be caused by an abundance of something like too much fluoride, too much arsenic, too much mercury, or too much lead.
LEAD IN MODERN DAY
[[#|POISONING]] IN CHILDREN- Low level lead poisoning can be hard to spot as the symptoms don't always make themselves obvious util a later age. Symptoms of those exposed to higher levels of lead are (not all of them) [[#|headaches]], a blue [[#|line]] around the gums, tiredness, anaemia, [[#|abdominal pain]] and cramps, vomiting, diarrhoea, [[#|hearing problems]], slow growth, foot drop, wrist drop, lack of physical coordination, convulsions, coma and death.
POISONING IN ADULTS- In adults the symptoms can include [[#|headaches]], tiredness, a blue line around the gums, anaemia, [[#|abdominal pain]] and cramps, vomiting, diarrhoea, [[#|hearing problems]], insomnia, lack of concentration, [[#|memory]] loss, [[#|problems]] with the [[#|kidneys]], lack of physical co-ordination, [[#|high blood pressure]], [[#|foot drop]], wrist drop, abnormal behaviour, convulsions, coma and death.
Lead causes permanent [[#|brain damage]]
If a woman is pregnant, lead poisoning can cause miscarriage, [[#|premature birth]], or developmental [[#|problems]] with the baby’s birth
Lead poisoning causes damage to the central nervous system, a drop in IQ, [[#|learning disabilities]] and behavioural problems.
[[#|Treatment for]] lower levels of lead poisoning is [[#|surgery]] to [[#|remove]] the [[#|lead source]].
For higher levels of lead poisoning the [[#|treatment]] is chelation drugs to remove the metel
Lead became illegal in the United States in 1978.
Lead can be mistaken for calcium and can ruin the bones of a human being.
Lead is more susceptible to children, because they eat the paint chips off the [[#|walls]] of their homes and end up getting poisoned.
WEEBLY PROJECT
Lilli Alten and Megan Goodlet's project
"Lead Poisoning in Ancient Rome." Lead Poisoning in Ancient Rome. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013. "Lead Poisoning and Rome." Lead Poisoning and Rome. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013. "Powered By Osteons." Lead Poisoning in Rome. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2013.`
[[#|EMAIL]]
Hello Dr. Griffiths, we are both seventh graders at Nagel Middle [[#|School]] in Cincinnati, Ohio. We are doing a project on problems with lead pipes today and we have to ask questions to experts. If you don't mind, we have a few questions for you.
Thank you for your time, and thanks for answering our questions! Have a nice day!
Sincerely,Lilli and Megan (seventh grade) RESPONSE Dear Lilli and Megan:
Thank you very much for [[#|your email]]. I'm sorry not to have replied earlier but I have been travelling to India, where I am emailing you from.
1. Yes, I have taken care of people with lead poisoning. By [[#|training]] I am a [[#|pediatrician]], and I am sorry to tell you that most of the people I have treated have been young children who lived in houses where they head eaten paint off the [[#|[[#|walls]]]]. The paint had lead in it. A lot of the paint in the US until about 50 years ago had lead added to it. Many houses still have this paint on the walls, and have just had more new paint put over the old paint. Because of this people may think the walls have new paint, and don't know underneath it may be [[#|lead paint]]. These [[#|poor children]] often came to the hospital with seizures, or when they went to the doctors office they were anemic - had a low blood count - and when investigated it turned out to be lead poisoning.
Your topic about lead pipes is a great one. Water that travels through lead pipes picks up some of the lead, and the people who drink the water get a little bit - but they get a little bit every day. This little bit of lead they get builds up and may, in the long run, be just as bad as eating a lot of lead in some paint chips.
2. TODAY most people do survive lead poisoning. In the US and other wealthy countries, treatment is available, and most of the time the source of the lead that has poisoned the people is searched for and then removed. However, in the past that was not the case, and many people likely suffered from lead poisoning for which there was no good treatment. People used to get a lot - really a lot - of lead because lead pipes for water were commonly used. Also, people would put lead into food sometimes in the past. Now it seems almost crazy to do it but people did not know better back then.
I also want to make sure, however, that you know there is a difference between survival and being free of any long-term effects. Children who have been exposed to lead often have permanent brain damage and are not as smart as they could have been without the lead.
3. I don't know if adults or children are more susceptible to lead, but I believe it is most likely children. That is because their brains are growing and developing and their skeletons are also doing the same. Adults already have formed brains, so I believe that while the effects of lead are bad, in adults the process of growth and development is not affected like it is in children.
4. Lead is an element - like oxygen, or iron, or aluminum. It just so happens that lead, at the atomic level, looks very similar to another element, calcium.
So, when you get lead into your body, it takes the place of some of the calcium atoms. As it turns out, calcium atoms move back and forth in and out of cells, and between nerve cells, and is used for very many other chemical reactions and movements in the body. Your body uses calcium for many, many different things - and so the lead messes up lots and lots of the chemical reactions in the body.
Nerve cells are used to communicate and so the communication system inside the body is messed up too by lead. Your brain has many many billions of connections and the brain cells talk to one another all the time. So, the lead is really bad for the brain as it messes up the communications there. This is why people with lead poisoning lose intelligence, and have seizures.
I'm sure you have heard that it is important to have calcium in your diet so you can grow. Most of us get lots of calcium in cow's milk, yogurt, cheese, and things like that. Because lead replaces calcium, the cells that make your bones can collect and trap lead instead of calcium. This means that even if you treat a person to remove lead if they have been poisoned, they may still have lead in their bones for a long term - perhaps even all their lives.
Thank you very much for your questions, and if you have more I'll be happy to answer them. It may take me a day because I'm in India (and after here will be in East Africa) and sometimes the email connections are not so hot.
I'm glad you are doing a project on lead in pipes. It's a big problem and I don't think people are paying enough attention to it.
Ancient Rome used lead pipes to transfer water throughout the city. It was later found to be a health concern for the Roman citizens.
LEAD IN ROME
Lead was causing health problems in Ancient Rome
lead was extensively used in plumbing
domestic utensils were made of lead and pewter
lead salts were used in cosmetics, medicines and paints.
Like a microbicide, lead was also used to preserve food.
Rather than encrusted lead pipes, a more probable cause of chronic lead poisoning was the consumption of defrutum and sapa.. (They were made by boiling down grape juice or must (freshly squeezed grapes) in large kettles until it had been reduced to two-thirds the original volume)
how the must (Grape juice before or during fermentation) was boiled and reduced, whether in pots of bronze or lead? - reducing must in a copper or lead vessel over a slow fire, stirring constantly to prevent scorching; continue the boiling, until you have boiled off a half
Metabolic disorders can be caused by a lack of nutrients, but they can also be caused by an abundance of something like too much fluoride, too much arsenic, too much mercury, or too much lead.
LEAD IN MODERN DAY
WEEBLY PROJECT
Lilli Alten and Megan Goodlet's project
http://leadpoisoninginrome.weebly.com
CITATION
"Lead Poisoning in Ancient Rome." Lead Poisoning in Ancient Rome. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
"Lead Poisoning and Rome." Lead Poisoning and Rome. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
"Powered By Osteons." Lead Poisoning in Rome. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2013.`
[[#|EMAIL]]
Hello Dr. Griffiths, we are both seventh graders at Nagel Middle [[#|School]] in Cincinnati, Ohio. We are doing a project on problems with lead pipes today and we have to ask questions to experts. If you don't mind, we have a few questions for you.
1) Have you ever had a patient with lead poisoning?
2) Do most people survive lead poisoning if the [[#|source]] is removed quick enough? (I have researched the effects of lead poisoning)
3) Do adults or children have a higher chance of dying of lead poisoning?
4) What in the lead causes lead poisoning?
Thank you for your time, and thanks for answering our questions! Have a nice day!
Sincerely,Lilli and Megan (seventh grade)
RESPONSE
Dear Lilli and Megan:
Thank you very much for [[#|your email]]. I'm sorry not to have replied earlier but I have been travelling to India, where I am emailing you from.
1. Yes, I have taken care of people with lead poisoning. By [[#|training]] I am a [[#|pediatrician]], and I am sorry to tell you that most of the people I have treated have been young children who lived in houses where they head eaten paint off the [[#|[[#|walls]]]]. The paint had lead in it. A lot of the paint in the US until about 50 years ago had lead added to it. Many houses still have this paint on the walls, and have just had more new paint put over the old paint. Because of this people may think the walls have new paint, and don't know underneath it may be [[#|lead paint]]. These [[#|poor children]] often came to the hospital with seizures, or when they went to the doctors office they were anemic - had a low blood count - and when investigated it turned out to be lead poisoning.
Your topic about lead pipes is a great one. Water that travels through lead pipes picks up some of the lead, and the people who drink the water get a little bit - but they get a little bit every day. This little bit of lead they get builds up and may, in the long run, be just as bad as eating a lot of lead in some paint chips.
2. TODAY most people do survive lead poisoning. In the US and other wealthy countries, treatment is available, and most of the time the source of the lead that has poisoned the people is searched for and then removed. However, in the past that was not the case, and many people likely suffered from lead poisoning for which there was no good treatment. People used to get a lot - really a lot - of lead because lead pipes for water were commonly used. Also, people would put lead into food sometimes in the past. Now it seems almost crazy to do it but people did not know better back then.
I also want to make sure, however, that you know there is a difference between survival and being free of any long-term effects. Children who have been exposed to lead often have permanent brain damage and are not as smart as they could have been without the lead.
3. I don't know if adults or children are more susceptible to lead, but I believe it is most likely children. That is because their brains are growing and developing and their skeletons are also doing the same. Adults already have formed brains, so I believe that while the effects of lead are bad, in adults the process of growth and development is not affected like it is in children.
4. Lead is an element - like oxygen, or iron, or aluminum. It just so happens that lead, at the atomic level, looks very similar to another element, calcium.
So, when you get lead into your body, it takes the place of some of the calcium atoms. As it turns out, calcium atoms move back and forth in and out of cells, and between nerve cells, and is used for very many other chemical reactions and movements in the body. Your body uses calcium for many, many different things - and so the lead messes up lots and lots of the chemical reactions in the body.
Nerve cells are used to communicate and so the communication system inside the body is messed up too by lead. Your brain has many many billions of connections and the brain cells talk to one another all the time. So, the lead is really bad for the brain as it messes up the communications there. This is why people with lead poisoning lose intelligence, and have seizures.
I'm sure you have heard that it is important to have calcium in your diet so you can grow. Most of us get lots of calcium in cow's milk, yogurt, cheese, and things like that. Because lead replaces calcium, the cells that make your bones can collect and trap lead instead of calcium. This means that even if you treat a person to remove lead if they have been poisoned, they may still have lead in their bones for a long term - perhaps even all their lives.
Thank you very much for your questions, and if you have more I'll be happy to answer them. It may take me a day because I'm in India (and after here will be in East Africa) and sometimes the email connections are not so hot.
I'm glad you are doing a project on lead in pipes. It's a big problem and I don't think people are paying enough attention to it.
Yours sincerely,
Jeff Griffiths